This last Sunday I went to Lollapalooza with my roommate and some of his friends. Overall, I was pretty glad that I attended. I had always had a sense of regret from last year when I didn’t go, especially because my favorite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was headlining.
This year, I also didn’t initially plan on attending even though my second favorite band, Pearl Jam, was headlining. However, this all changed in the matter of a few moments. A few weeks back, my roommate, Scott, said he knew some people going to all three days. He had then decided to go on Sunday, the day Pearl Jam was playing. He asked if I wanted to go. I checked out the lineup and saw some decent acts were playing that day (Modest Mouse, Amy Winehouse, and Pearl Jam) and decided that this would be worth paying the price of admission.
I had some trepidation about going to the festival because it turned out that Sunday was really hot and humid. I remember last year there was a lot of fanfare concerning how hot it was during the day and people lacking water, etc. So this was in the back of my mind. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined. Don’t get me wrong, it was really hot and sticky, but it wasn’t something that a little water couldn’t cure. Plus even though there were lots of people there, it didn’t feel or seem to be overly crowded.
So we started off the day listening to Amy Winehouse. I had really anticipated this one since I had become enamored with her voice as of late. Overall, I thought her performance was really good. She shows a lot of range in her styles, and I love her retro throwback (50s/60s jazzy lounge) sound. I think her voice is great, and that it sounds refreshingly different from most acts today. Scott made the keen observation that Amy kind of sounds like Lauryn Hill (another one my singing favs). I had never really thought it about it, but I think there’s some truth to it.
We then wandered and listened to a few other acts (Kings of Leon, the Wailers). Finally we settled in and listened to Modest Mouse. This show was a little harder for me to appreciate as I really don’t know their songs (with exception of “Float On”). However, it sounded pretty good as well.
Finally, we ventured across Grant Park one last time in order to get positioning for Pearl Jam. It had been four years since I last saw them at a killer show in Indy. One thing was certain from the last time I had seen them play; PJ knows how to rock a live performance. I would definitely say they were one of the best acts I had seen live, if not the best. Well this show didn’t disappoint either. They pretty much played two hours and went through a decent range of their catalogue. Also Eddie Vedder was his usual funny, wisecracking self.
From what I remember, PJ played songs like “Not for You”, “Corduroy”, “Given to Fly”, “Daughter”, “State of Love and Trust”, and “World Wide Suicide.” For me, probably the highlights were when they busted out the old favorites from their first album, “Ten”, with “Evenflow” and “Alive.” The whole crowd was singing along to both of these classics.
PJ came out on stage twice for encores. During the first one, Eddie pulled out “Betterman”, for which the crowd sang the entire first verse alone. Then for the second encore, Ben Harper joined the band onstage to sing an anti war song. Finally, PJ, Ben Harper, and a decent amount of people from the audience were onstage rocking it to a frenetic cover of Neil Young’s “Keep on Rocking in the Free World.” It was a fitting ending.
Once again PJ put on a great show. It’s sweet to see them live. I was kind of disappointed they didn’t play “Yellow Ledbetter”, but how can I complain too much really. I definitely recommend seeing them if you have the chance.
